History of the box repeated

Page Tools

Old shows fade to black, but the memories play on,
writes Helen Razer.

Those wondering about the welfare of Dexter the romance robot,
fret no longer. Australia's favourite mechanical cupid is alive,
moderately well and living on the Mornington Peninsula. Happily
surrounded by other telly memorabilia, the former star of the 1980s
game show, Perfect Match, is a premier attraction at
Moorooduc's TV World: The Australian Museum of Modern Media.

Dexter had a lucky escape. If not for some curatorial charity,
the robot would have been condemned to the scrap heap.

"Dexter was kidnapped from Channel Ten when Perfect
Match came to a close," Bob Phillips, TV World's curator and
manager, says.

"Eventually, he returned - albeit minus a lot of his internal
electronics, which, gradually, we're refurbishing. We're aiming to
have him in the foyer for Christmas time, walking and talking and
greeting people."

Since Phillips' retirement from a production gig at Channel
Nine, he has been looking for this valuable trash. A believer in
the power of pop, Phillips has devoted nearly 20 years to the
restoration and display of artefacts such as Dexter. "I am a bit of
a hoarder," he admits.

When his collection of TV curios could no longer be contained in
his home, he took instructions from his wife, former television
personality Judy Banks, and opened a museum.

"When we first opened the museum in 1988, I wrote to about 300
TV personnel and we did receive some amazing responses," he
says.

Judith Durham shook the cobwebs from a tambourine, Mike
Willessee dusted off his Gold Logie and Rolf Harris found a retired
wobble board to donate. Ian "Molly" Meldrum bequeathed a hat, and
when Hey Hey It's Saturday puppeteer Ernie Carroll withdrew his
hand from an iconic pink ostrich for the last time, Ossie found his
way to Moorooduc.

Bert Newton liberated many items from his personal
collection.

"In fact Bert has been a remarkable patron. He filled about half
the museum initially," Phillips says.

Phillips' former In Melbourne Tonight colleague Graham
Kennedy is also ably represented at TV World. Gra Gra's reign as
the king of Australian television, once described by the man
himself as "40 years of terror", is nowhere better documented. "The
man is an icon, a true original," says Phillips.

The custodianship of Graham Kennedy and Australia's pop past is
a matter that this husband and wife team takes seriously. Surviving
without funding, TV World has its own niche in Australian museum
culture.